Lfl 371 
.K3 D3 
Copy 1 



University of Texas Bulletin 

No. 2246: December 8, 1922 



A STUDY OF RURAL SCHOOLS IN 
KARNES COUNTY 

BY 
E. E. DAVIS 

Specialist in Rural Education 
Bureau of Exteoicion 

and 

C. T. GRAY 

Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Education 
Directed by T. H. Shelby 

BUREAU OF EXTENSION 




PUBLISHED BY 

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

AUSTIN 



Publications of the University of Texas 

Publications Committee ; 



Frederic Duncalf J. L. Henderson 
KiLLis Campbell E. J. Mathews 

F. W. Graff H. J. Muller 

C. G. Haines F. A. C. Perrin 

Hal C. Weaver 



The University publishes bulletins four times a month, 
30 numbered that the first two digits of the number show 
the year of issue, the last two the position in the yearly 
series. (For example, No. 2201 is the first bulletin of the 
year 1922.) These comprise the official publications of the 
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jects, bulletins prepared by the Bureau of Extension, by the 
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sity publications should be addressed to University Publica- 
tions, University of Texas, Austin. 



156-2806-10-26-22-5m 



University of Texas Bulletin 

No. 2246: December 8, 1922 



A STUDY OF RURAL SCHOOLS IN 
KARNES COUNTY 

BY 
E. E. DAVIS 

Specialist in Rural Education 
Bureau of Extension 

and 

C. T. GRAY 

Associate Professor of the Pliilosopliy of Education 

Directed by T. H. Shelby 

BUREAU OF EXTENSION 




PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY FOUR TIMES A MONTH. AND ENTERED AS 

SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POSTOFFICE AT AUSTIN. TEXAS. 

UNDER THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, 1912 



v^^'i? 



The benefits of education and of 
useful knowledge, generally diffused 
through a community, are essential 
to the preservation of a free govern- 
ment. 

Sam Houston 

Cultivated mind i» the guardian 
genius of democracy. ... It is the 
only dictator that freemen acknowl- 
edge and the only security that free- 
men desire. 

Mirabeau B. Lamar 



LIBRARY OF congress'" 
»£C£(VED 

FEB ft -19^.^ 

DOCUMENTS DJVJ3IOP 



CHAPTER I. 

CHAPTER n. 

CHAPTER m. 

CHAPTER IV. 

CHAPTER V. 

CHAPTER VI. 

CHAPTER VII. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

CHAPTER IX. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

Page 
The People of Karnes County 7 

Community Relationships 13 

Financial Status of the Rural 
Schools of Karnes County 20 

Grounds, Buildings, and Equip- 
ment 28 

The Rural School Teachers of 
Karnes County 32 

The Pupils : 38 

The Course of Study... 44 

School Attendance 47 

Consolidation and Transportation 49 



..PART II 



'-' K ?: 



CHAPTER X.- Results 'T'rom Standard Tests in 

Reading and Arithmetic 51 



FOREWORD 

During the school year of 1921-22 the Bureau of Ex- 
tension of the University conducted rural school surveys 
in Wichita, Karnes, and Williamson counties. During the 
school year of 1922-23 it is the purpose of the Bureau of 
Extension to conduct similar research investigations in 
other Texas counties. In this series of surveys will be 
found a county with millions of oil wealth in it; a 
county from the timber lands of East Texas ; one from the 
Blackland Belt with its educational and sociological com- 
plications arising from high-priced land, the one crop sys- 
tem, farm tenants and absentee landlords; one from the 
Western Cross Timbers where loss of rural population has 
brought about a large amount of social stagnation ;one from 
middle west Texas with its thrifty, homogeneous, home- 
owning English-speaking population; one from the high 
plains where there is much room for expansion and where 
there is a wholesome breadth of vision on the; part of most 
of the people ; and one from South-west Texas with its cos- 
mopolitan population of Mexicans and other non-English- 
speaking whites. Thus the rural educational conditions 
obtaining throughout the state will be covered in a fairly 
representative way. 

The object of these studies it twofold: (1) To enable 
counties in which they are conducted to see where they 
stand educationally, and to assist them in the work of educa- 
tional self-improvement ; (2) To obtain a fund of definite, 
reliable, comprehensive information on the rural-life situa- 
tion in Texas to be placed at the disposal of students and 
teachers of education. It is hoped that these studies may 
make some contribution to the content of the courses in rural 
education now being offered in the normal colleges and the 
other colleges of Texas. 

The information gathered in the course of these surveys 
has been obtained through personal interviews with teach- 
ers, school patrons, and school trustees; the observation of 



6 University of Texas Bulletin 

the character of the instruction being done by the teachers 
in the classroom; the inspection of school furniture and 
school property; the sending of questionnaires to teachers 
and trustees ; the use of such statistical data as could be ob- 
tained from the coun^ departments of education, the of- 
fices of the county tax assessors and the tax collectors, the 
State Department of Education at Austin, and the reports 
of the U. S. Bureau of the Census. In each county where 
these studies have been made a representative of the Bureau 
of Extension has spent approximately thirty days in co-op- 
eration with the County Superintendent of Schools collecting 
the necessary information. The blanks and forms used in 
the course of these surveys may be found in the appendix 
of this publication. 

T. H. Shelby, 

Director' of the Bureau of Extension, 

University of Texas. 



CHAPTER I 

THE PEOPLE OF KARNES COUNTY 

1. Composition and Characteristics of the Population. 
The U. S. Census for 1920 gave the population of Karnes 
County as 14,942 persons. There were 4,673 males of 
twenty-one years of age and older, 41.7 per cent of whom 
were born of native parentage, 53.1 per cent of foreign-born 
and mixed parentage, and 5.2 per cent the nativity of whose 
parentage was not ascertained. There were 1,496, or 32.1 
per cent of the total male population of twenty-one years of 
age and older, that were born in foreign lands. Of this 
number 77.8 per cent were aliens, 15 :8 per cent had become 
naturalized, and 1.8 per cent had taken out their first pa- 
pers declaring their intentions to become naturalized. 
The status of 4.4 per cent was unknown. The composition 
of the total foreign-born population runs as follows : Aus- 
trians, .9 per cent ; Mexicans, 82.9 per cent ; Czecho-Slovacks, 
1.9 per cent; Germans, 8.8 per cent; English, .8 per cent; 
Polish, 1.2 per cent; Swedes, 1.7 per cent; Swiss, .4 per cent; 
others, 1.3 per cent. 

2. The Polish People. The Polish settlement of Pan- 
namaria in this county was made in 1852. It is located in 
the fertile valley of the beautiful Cibillo Creek. The Polish 
population now extends over and includes most of the con- 
tiguous school districts of Pannamaria, Cestahowa, Hobson, 
and Falls City. In these four districts there are 402 Polish 
children of free-school age, most of whom are enrolled in the 
parochial schools. The total Polish population is approx- 
imately 2,200 persons, less than two per cent of whom are 
foreign-born. 

It has been seventy years since the original settlement 
was made at Pannamaria. During that time the wilderness 
has been transformed into a land of farms and quaint, inde- 
pendent country homes. But in language, social customs 
and religious and educational practices, the past three score 



8 University of Texas Bulletin 

and ten years have brought but Httle change in the con- 
stituted order of things originally set up and established by 
the pioneer fathers. The Polish language is still the dom- 
inant language of the community. Indeed, there are men 
forty years old, born and reared in the community, who 
can not speak English. 

There are two schools in the Pannamaria district, the 
public free school and the parochial school. The public 
school employs one teacher and has 33 of the 158 children of 
free school age enrolled in it this year. The children not 
enrolled in the public school are presumably enrolled in the 
parochial school which is under the auspices of the Catholic 
Church. In the Polish districts of Cestahowa, Hobson, and 
Falls City the social, educational, and religious conditions 
are similar to those obtaining in the Pannamaria district. 

Among the big problems for the schools in the Polish 
districts are those of teaching the English language and 
enforcing its use in the classrooms and on the school play- 
grounds, and the inculcating of American civic and social 
ideals. It looks as if the schools in some of the Polish com- 
munities have not been very successful in meeting these 
problems in the past. If America is to endure, its people 
must be held together by the ties of a common language, 
common traditions, and universal American customs. 

3. The Swedish People. The U. S. Census for 1920 
gives Karnes County only 55 Swedes of foreign birth. 
However, there is a very considerable population of Swedish 
descent in this county. The Swedes are lovers of the soil 
and are excellent farmers. Most of them are public-spirited 
citizens. The Cadillac school is in the heart of a big 
Swedish settlement. This school is modern in most re- 
spects, and is, in the judgment of the writer, one of the 
best three-teacher rural schools in the county. There are 
more well-improved farm homes in the Cadillac community 
than in any other community of the county. As a rule, the 
Swedes throughout Texas are good citizens and adopt 
American ideals and American institutions with little dif- 
ficulty. 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 9 

4. The German People. Only 286, or less than 2 per 
cent of the total population, are Germans of foreign birth. 
However, this is not a reliable index to the number and the 
percentage of German-speaking people in the county, for 
many of the descendants of the foreign-born Germans still 
speak the mother tongue. 

There is a very considerable number of German communi- 
ties in the county. The Metz, Lenz, Brieges, New Bremen, 
and Live Oak school districts have few other than German 
residents. In these districts we find German customs and 
the German language almost as strongly entrenched as the 
Polish customs are in the Polish section of the county. In 
the German homes the mother tongue is spoken almost en- 
tirely. English is spoken at school. Most of the German 
parents desire that their children learn to speak English 
and that they use nothing but English at school. For this 
they are to be commended. 

5. The Mexican People. By far the greatest school 
problem in Karnes County is the education of the Mexican 
child. The total foreign-born population in Karnes County 
is 82.9 per cent Mexican. Out of a total scholastic popula- 
tion of 3299, 1497, or 45.4 per cent, are Mexican children. 
The Mexicans number approximately 6,700 out of a total 
population in the county of 14,942. 

As a rule the Mexican people are very poor and very ig- 
norant. Their standards of living are generally low. The 
worst of the tumble-down shacks in the towns and in the 
country are occupied by them. Many of them have very 
few clothes and very little in the way of household furniture. 
Often the entire household equipment for a family of five 
or six could be hauled in a wheelbarrow. They constitute 
the lowest stratum of society in south-west Texas. Their 
social and economic status is further complicated by the fact 
that they speak a foreign language. The language is a 
modified form of Spanish. Only a small per cent of them 
know enough English to make themselves understood about 
the most elemental things. They can scarcely purchase 
their supplies at the grocery store except from a person who 



10 University of Texas Bulletin 

speaks the form of Spanish they know. Most of the Mex- 
icans are engaged in agricultural labor and are either farm 
tenants or hired farm hands. 

In general, the Mexican parents do not send their chil- 
dren to school. Out of a total of 1497 Mexican children on 
the scholastic census rolls for 1921-22 only 460 are enrolled 
in the public schools. This, in the judgment of the writer, 
is due to five causes : (1) ignorance, (2) poverty, (3) shift- 
lessness, (4) parental indifference, (5) weakness of the 
compulsory school attendance laws. 

The ignorance of the lower class of the Mexican People 
is pitiful and appalling. For instance, the scholastic census 
for the school year 1922-23 was taken while this survey was 
being made. Census enumerators reported many cases 
where Mexican parents did not know the birthdays of their 
children. Most of them could tell the year in which each 
child was born, but they had no record of the month or the 
day. Some of them were very suspicious and it v/as v.-ith 
difficulty that the enumerators obtained the names of their 
children. For example, one Mexican mother protested em- 
phatically, "Me gota no children ! Me gota no childrer !" 
But before the enumerator left her premises he found five 
frightened ragamuffins of her own flesh and blood that to 
all appearances were within the limits of the free school 
age. 

Many of the poorer classes live in a state of most abject 
squalor. Their home conditions are almost indescribable. 
The children live in filth and rags. It is for this reason, no 
doubt, that many of them are not sent to school. 

A very large per cent of the rural Mexican population is 
shiftless. They hoe cotton during the spring months, pick 
cotton during the fall months, and clear land and cut wood 
in the winter. This results in much moving about from 
community to community and from county to county. A 
transient Mexican family, relying upon the seasonal work 
of the cotton crops and such farm jobs as wood chopping and 
the clearing of land, may sojourn for a few weeks at a time 
in several school districts during a single school year. This 



A Study of Ru7'al Schools in Karnes County 11 

naturally interferes with school attendance of those who 
enroll in school. The children of many of these families 
never enter school at all as the figures quoted above indicate 
clearly. 

Some of the Mexican parents have thought nothing about 
the education of their children. They are thoroughly in- 
different. But it would be grossly unfair to say that this 
is universally true of even the poorest class of the Mexican 
people. There are some very poor Mexican parents who 
understand the meaning of the public school, feel the need 
of education, and make reasonable efforts to keep their chil- 
dren in school. 

In practice, the compulsory school attendance law can not 
be sucessf ully enforced among the Mexican people of south- 
west Texas. Nor is it to the discredit of the school officials 
that it is not enforced. There are two fundamental weak- 
nesses in the compulsory school attendance law that prevent 
its application to most of the rural Mexican population in 
south-west Texas: (1) The law is operative only two and 
one-half miles from the schoolhouse. In some of the sparse- 
ly settled counties of south-west Texas the distances from 
schoolhouse to schoolhouse are so great that more than fifty 
per cent of the area is geographically exempt from the 
operation of the compulsory school attendance law. In 
Karnes County with 692 square miles of area the 42 school- 
houses in the independent and the common school districts 
are so distributed over the county that approximately 20 
per cent of the county's area is exempt from the operation 
of the compulsory school attendance laws. (2) Non-com- 
pliance with the compulsory school attendance law is punish- 
able by a money fine assessed against the offending parents 
or guardians. A very large per cent of the Mexican people 
are so very poor that they have neither money nor other 
property that might be levied against. They are farm 
tenants and hired farm laborers looking to their landlords 
and employers for food and clothing till the crops are har- 
vested in the fall or till the wages are paid at the end of 
the week or the end of the month. Then when the day of 



12 University of Texas Bulletin 

settlement comes the Mexican may owe the landlord or the 
employer more than the landlord or the employer owes him. 
The economic status of the average rural-dwelling Mexican 
is such as to render the present compulsory school at- 
tendance law inoperative. 



CHAPTER II 

COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS 

1. Rec7'eation in the Country. A questionnaire on com- 
munity relationships was sent to all school principals. Twen- 
ty-nine principals answered the question (see appendix, 
page 59) calling for the social centers in their communities. 
The question explained that it was desired to know the usual 
place or places where the people of each community had 
the opportunity of meeting and seeing each other. The an- 
swers were as follows : schoolhouse, 13 ; postoffice, village 
store, blacksmith shop, etc., 9 ; church, 4 ; dance hall, 3 ; 
visiting in homes, 3 ; no place at all, 3 ; dances and play 
parties at homes, 2 ; on streets at town, 2 ; at the dipping 
vat, 1. 

A great many of the rural people go to town for their 
amusements and social contacts. The following are typical 
of the reasons given for their going to town : "Because 
they like car riding and town attractions" ; "The entertain- 
ment they desire is lacking here" ; "There is no other place 
to go" ; "Nothing doing out here" ; "No picture shows in the 
country." 

The following are some of the reasons given why a ma- 
jority of the people in some communities do not go to tov^nn 
for their recreation : "The people are engaged in farm 
labor and have no time to spare"; "Town is too far away"; 
"Have no way to go" ; "The people have many foreign cus- 
toms and ideals, and prefer staying at home and mixing 
among themselves." 

As a rule, from ten to twenty-five per cent of the stu- 
dents above fifteen years of age desired to leave the country 
and go to town to live. Some of the causes given for the 
desire to go to town were : "Better social and professional 
opportunities"; "Tired of farm life and long for the 
pleasures of the city" ; "Do not like farming" ; "Had rather 
be bookkeepers, druggists, etc., than farmers" ; "Gay life 
and less work in the city." 



14 University of Texas Bulletin 

In twenty-two schools the principals ascertained, or ap- 
proximated, the percentage of their older students who de- 
sired to remain in the country and on the farm to live. 
Eight districts reported 100 per cent; four, 95 per cent; 
four, 90 per cent ; four 75 per cent ; one, 50 per cent ; one, 33 
per cent. Six of the eight schools that reported that 100 
per cent of their pupils desired to remain in the country to 
live gave the following reasons: "Foreign community and 
prefers farm life"; "Most of the pupils are Germans"; 
"German people"; "Like farm life"; "A Polish communi- 
ty" ; "Essentials of life, though poor, seem to be sufficient" ; 
"Mexicans without high ambitions." 

The striking thing about these facts and figures is that 
the communities most influenced by foreign traditions are 
the communities whose people are most willing to remain in 
the country to live. Whether this static, passive content- 
ment results in the greatest good to those concerned is a 
question for the trained sociologist to answer. The facts 
lead to the conclusion that the nervous, high-strung Amer- 
ican farmer commonly met with can not be contented and 
happy with the modest home and the bare necessities of 
life that usually satisfy his agricultural competitor of for- 
eign birth. 

In one American community where it was estimated that 
90 per cent of the pupils desired to remain in the country 
to live the reason given was, "Because the parents own 
their homes and are satisfied." In another American com- 
munity 95 per cent of the pupils desired to remain in the 
country because "they like farm life." In this last-men- 
tioned community, it is interesting to note, is located the 
only agricultural high school in Karnes County. There is 
abundant reason to believe that with more home-owning 
farmers, more agricultural high schools and more organized 
recreational facilities both the American-born and the for- 
eign-born farmers would become better citizens, and would 
be more contented to remain in the country to live. 

2. Organized Cultural and Recreational Activities. 
Other than the play activities at school and the athletic and 



I 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 15 

literary activities of the Interscholastic League there was 
very little reported in the way of organized effort for social 
and cultural improvement. Six schools reported that they 
had regularly organized literary societies; two had string 
bands ; one had a male quartette ; one had a reading circle ; 
and one had Friday night victrola concerts and community 
singings. It is just such activities as these that teachers 
in the rural districts should know better how to lead and 
direct. Country communities appreciate capable, tactful 
leadership, and respond to capable, sympathetic direction. 
It will be a happy day for rural Texas when attractive 
courses in Rural Leadership and Community Management 
are offered by all of our normal schools and when teachers 
will be sought after as much because of personality and the 
ability to lead people and deal with community problems as 
because of their abilities to pass the academic requirements 
for certification. 

3. The Churches. In 29 of the school communities where 
this investigation was conducted there were 25 organized 
churches and 15 Sunday schools. The distribution of rural 
churches throughout the county was as follows : twelve of 
the school communities had no organized churches ; ten had 
one church each; six had two churches each; and one had 
three churches. Two of the communities with no organized 
churches reported that most of the people went to the near- 
by towns for church. In several communities the church 
services and the Sunday schools were conducted in the 
school buildings. Church attendance was reported as being 
better in the Catholic communities than in the Protestant 
communities. 

4. Organized Play at School. Twenty-seven of the 39 
schools in the county made reports on their athletic activ- 
ities. Twenty of these schools reported one or more forms 
of organized athletics. Fourteen schools had organized vol- 
ley ball; twelve, organized basketball; three, track work 
and vaulting; and two, tennis. 

5. The Interscholastic League. Sixteen of the thirty- 
nine schools sent contestants to the County Interscholastic 



16 University of Texas Bulletin 

Meet. Because of timidity the children from the communi- 
ties where foreign customs and foreign languages were 
most prevalent did not enter the interscholastic contests as 
readily and as enthusiastically as the children from the 
American communities. Timidity and lack of initiative 
were especially noticeable among the children of some of the 
Polish and German communities. Some of the children 
who prepared for the contests in spelling, declamation, and 
athletics would not enter the county meet because of timidity 
and self-consciousness. So far as the author's information 
goes, none of the Mexican children participated in the con- 
tests of the county meet. 

In spite of this fact, the County Interscholastic Meet in 
Karnes County has grown from a few hundred in at- 
tendance to an attendance of three or four thousand during 
the past six years. It is the biggest annual event in the 
County. In addition to the intellectual, field, and track 
events, there are exhibits of poultry, sewing, cooking, pre- 
serving, canning of fresh vegetables, etc., from the Women's 
Department. This year some of the schools brought ex- 
hibits of school work. The exhibits of maps, notebooks, 
drawings, clay models and manual training from the four- 
teacher school at Gillett are worthy of special mention. 

6. Boys' and Girls' Industrial Clubs. Under the direc- 
tion of Mr. G. M. Jones, County Farm Demonstration Agent, 
and Miss Agnes D. Yeamans, County Home Demonstration 
Agent, much valuable service is being rendered for home, 
community, and industrial betterment in Karnes County. 
The principals of 60 per cent of the rural schools reported 
that they are actively cooperating with Mr. Jones and Miss 
Yeamans in their work. 

Mr. Jones writes : "During the past three years I have 
listed in club work more than 500 boys and girls between 
the ages of 10 and 18 years. In 1920 I had 50 boys to buy 
registered pigs. The banks of the county loaned the boys 
the money with which to buy these pigs. Each boy was re- 
quired to give the bank his personal note without the sig- 
nature of his father. These notes have all been paid. As 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 17 

a result there are many good hogs in the county at this 
time. The boys' parents have become interested in good 
hogs. By borrowing the money from the banks upon their 
own notes these boys have been taught self-reliance, honesty 
in dealing with their fellowmen, and how to do business in a 
business-like way. The boys have learned much about rais- 
ing better live stock and better poultry. They have also 
learned better methods of seed selection and better methods 
of agriculture. The boys and girls of the county have al- 
ways been encouraged in their club work by the business 
men and the bankers. They have encouraged the work by 
offering the boys and girls free trips to the Dallas Fair and 
to the Short Course at the A. & M. College, and by giving 
cash premiums at the County Fair. 

"This year," Mr. Jones states, "I have 90 boys and one 
girl who are growing an acre of corn each. The seed for 
planting this corn was furnished free by the Chambers of 
Commerce at Karnes City and Kenedy and by myself. Each 
boy is required to keep a record of his work in a book fur- 
nished by the County Agent, to send a 10-ear exhibit to the 
Dallas State Fair, and to send a 10-ear exhibit to the Karnes 
County Fair this year. There are others who have pigs 
and brood sows for their projects this year. At the end of 
the year each club member is required to turn in to the 
County Agent a complete record of his project." 

Miss Yeamans writes: "There are 13 Girls' and Boys' 
Home Demonstration Clubs in Karnes County with an en- 
rollment of 130 members. These clubs consist of canning, 
poultry, and home-improvement clubs. Their purpose is to 
develop in rural girls a fundamental interest in the produc- 
tion and saving of food, in providing the right sort of social 
life, in developing leadership, in creating a desire for higher 
education, and in arousing an interest in better home mak- 
ing. The club girls have learned different ways of using 
vegetables, milk, eggs and other food products of the farm. 
They learn to sew, making sewing bags, cup towels, kitchen 
holders, underwear, aprons, dresses, etc." 

In her report Miss Yeamans mentions several instances 



18 University of Texas Bulletin 

of work done by individual club members. One girl planted 
a ten-cent package of tomato seed and from the crop pro- 
duced sold $15.50 worth of tomatoes, besides canning 80 
quart jars and using 60 pounds at home. Another girl had 
made an attractive bedroom set by revarnishing an old 
bed, dresser, table and chairs. Others had made un- 
bleached window curtains, bed spreads, table and dresser 
covers, etc., following the instructions and the designs laid 
out by the Home Demonstration Agent. 

Through their efforts at club work several of the girls 
have been awarded free trips. During the fall of 1920 two 
girls won trips to the Girls' Educational Encampment v/hich 
was held during the Fair on the Dallas Fair grounds. Two 
girls won trips to the Short Course held at the A. & M. 
College last summer, and four Karnes County girls will be 
accompanied by the County Home Demonstration Agent to 
the Dallas Encampment in the fall of 1922. These prize 
trips are both educational and pleasurable to the girls and 
stimulate a great interest in club work. 

7. Parent-Teacher Associations. The object of the 
P. T. A. is to promote education, home and school coopera- 
tion, civic pride, community spirit and good citizenship. It 
was at the instance of the County Parent-Teacher Associa- 
tion that the Karnes County School Survey was made. The 
association bore all the expenses of the survey giving it the 
very heartiest cooperation and moral support in every way. 
The County P. T. A. was organized four years ago to pro- 
mote the establishment of P. T. A.'s in rural communities. 
Now there are thirteen P. T. A.'s in the county. 

Nine teachers gave reasons why their school districts had 
no Parent-Teacher organization. They are as follows: 
"People not in favor of it" ; "People are of foreign birth. 
Cannot keep them interested"; "Parents can not speak 
English" ; "Polish people object to taking the time" ; "In- 
difference" ; "Lack of cooperation" ; "Not enough people to 
make it lively" ; "People too badly scattered" ; "People care 
nothing for such work." 

These answers give additional light on Karnes County's 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 19 

sociological complications resulting from her cosmopolitan 
population. This only serves to emphasize the importance 
of such socializing agencies as the P. T. A. In Karnes 
County, as in many other counties of Texas, the chief func- 
tion of the public school and all its allied activities should 
be Americanization, developing good citizenship, and en- 
couraging home making and community building. The live 
P. T. A. finds opportunities for much effective service in 
these lines. 



CHAPTER III 

FINANCIAL STATUS OF THE RURAL SCHOOLS OF 
KARNES COUNTY 

1. The Wealth of the County. The wealth of Karnes 
County as determined by the assessment rolls of the County 
Tax Assessor for the year 1921 was $10,415,392. There 
are twenty-six common school districts and three inde- 
pendent school districts in the county. Using the County 
Tax Assessor's report as a basis of determination, the 
wealth of the three independent school districts amounts to 
approximately $3,972,994, or $1,817.41 per scholastic enum- 
erated ; and the wealth of the twenty-six common school dis- 
tricts amounts to approximately $6,442,398, or $1,952.83 
per scholastic enumerated. There is an average of $135.42 
more of wealth per scholastic in the common school districts 
of the county than there is in the independent districts of 
Karnes City, Kenedy, and Runge. 

The average wealth per scholastic in Karnes County is 
considerably below the average wealth per scholastic 
throughout the State. The average per scholastic wealth 
for Karnes County, including both the common and the in- 
dependent school districts, is $1,920.97 as compared with an 
average per scholastic- wealth of $2,663.63 for the entire 
State of Texas. The average amount of wealth per scho- 
lastic in the common school districts of Karnes County that 
are levying and collecting taxes for school purposes ranges 
from the minimum of $1,539 in the Cadillac District, No. 31, 
to the maximum of $3,925 in the Burnell District, No. 25. 

2. DistHct School Taxes. The district school tax rates 
run as follows: twelve districts have 50c on the $100 of 
assessed valuation; two have 35c; four have 25c; one has 
15c; three have 10c; one has 5c; and three have no local 
school tax at all. Thus it is evident that the tax payers of 
Karnes County are not investing very heavily in public edu- 
cation. In Van Zandt and Lubbock counties, there is not a 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 21 

single common school district voting less than 50c for school 
purposes. Some districts in these two counties have school 
tax rates as high as 100c. In Karnes County the districts 
having no school taxes are composed almost entirely of for- 
eigners. 

It is very unfortunate that a large portion of the school 
taxes levied for the current school year in Karnes County 
have not been paid. On the 11th day of March, 1922, ac- 
cording to the books in the County Superintendent's office, 
only 58.5 per cent of the total amount of district school taxes 
levied in the county for the school year of 1921-22 had been 
collected, leaving 41.5 per cent of the total amount levied 
delinquent. 

For the school year of 1921-22 the total amount of dis- 
trict school taxes levied in the common school districts of 
Karnes County amounted to $20,002.08, or $6.06 per child 
enumerated. Of that amount, only $11,682.08, or $3.54 per 
child enumerated, had been paid prior to March 11, 1922. 
A tax rate of 19.1c uniformly levied and assessed against 
the wealth of the common school districts of the county 
would have been sufficient to produce the $11,682.08 actually 
paid in for the support of public education for the school 
year of 1921-22 at the date the survey was made. Of course 
much of the delinquent tax will be paid later, but this delay 
is a great hindrance to the schools, making it necessary for 
the trustees to close the schools, or forcing the teachers to 
discount their warrants. The tax rate is much less than the 
rate paid for the free schools in most of the counties in 
Texas. Yet, as is pointed out in another chapter of this bul- 
letin, the staff of rural teachers in Karnes County is, in all 
probability, considerably above the average for the State. 
This naturally raises the question. Where do the funds come 
from for the support of Karnes County's public schools ? 

3. Source of School Funds. For causes over which the 
local school authorities have only partial control, many of 
the Mexican children are never enrolled in school. (The 
matter of school attendance is more fully discussed in Chap- 
ter VIII.) There were 1497 Mexican children of free- 



22 University of Texas Bulletin 

school age enumerated in the common school districts for 
the school year of 1921-22, but up till March 11, 1922, only 
460 had been enrolled in the schools and many of them at- 
tended very irregularly. There were 1037 Mexican chil- 
dren, or 31.4 per cent of the entire white scholastic popula- 
tion, not enrolled in school. 

The school districts of Pannamaria, Cestahowa, Falls 
City, and Hobson are inhabited, for the most part, by Polish 
people. In these four districts there were approximately 
350 Polish children of free-school age not enrolled in the 
public schools. They were presumably attending the pa- 
rochial schools accessible to them. 

Including all transfers there were 3299 scholastics in the 
common school districts for the year 1921-22. There were 
1429 children, or 43.3 per cent of the entire white scholastic 
population, that had not entered school \yhen this survey 
was made in March, 1922. The State apportioned $13 each, 
or a total of $18,577.00 for the education of these 1429 chil- 
dren not in school. This amount constitutes approximately 
30 per cent of the rural school budget for the county for the 
year. Consequently, there is not the need for the levying 
and collecting of local school taxes that there would be if all 
the children were in school. As it is, most of the Mexican 
children do not go to school at all, and a large portion of the 
Polish children attend the parochial schools. 

According to Bulletin No. 126 of the State Department 
of Education, for the school year of 1920-21, there were 3191 
white scholastics in the common schools of Karnes County 
to whom state school funds were apportioned at the rate of 
$14.50 each. For the same year, there were 1628 white 
children actually enrolled in school in the common school 
districts. Thus, for the year 1920-21 the state apportion- 
ment of $14.50 per scholastic enumerated becomes $28.42 
per scholastic actually enrolled in school. The number of 
pupils in average daily attendance was 1051.8. This runs 
the State apportionment up to $43.99 per child in average 
daily attendance. 

There can be little doubt that one great reason for the 



A Study of Rwal Schools in Karnes County 23 

low school tax rates in so many of the districts of Karnes 
County is the fact that, under existing conditions, such taxes 
are not necessary. For instance, the Polish district of Pan- 
namaria with 158 scholastics has a one-teacher public school 
with 33 pupils enrolled in it. Since most of the children of 
this district go to the parochial school or to no school, at all, 
the state apportionment of $2,054 to the district, on the basis 
of $13 per scholastic, is entirely adequate to take care of the 
one-teacher public school. It amounts to $62.24 for each 
of the 33 scholastics enrolled. 

In the districts with heavy Mexican populations a similar 
condition obtains. For instance, the Helena district has 
253 scholastics enumerated for the present school year. Of 
this number 190 are Mexican children. Only 45 of these 
Mexican children were enrolled in school this year. There 
were 53 white children, other than Mexicans, enrolled. Of 
the 253 scholastics enumerated, a total of 98 actually entered 
school. On the basis of $13 per capita $3,289 were appor- 
tioned to the Helena district for the 253 scholastics enu- 
merated in it. This amounted to $33.46 for each of the 
children actually enrolled in school. With this large ap- 
portionment from the State a 15-cent school tax is sufficient 
to meet the needs of the district. 



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A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 25 

TABLE II 
Apportionment of State School Funds in Karnes County 



Number 
of district 


Number 
of children 
enumerated 


Number 

of children 

enrolled 


state 
apportionment 
on enumeration 


state 
apportionment 
on enrollment 


1 

2 


253 
312 


98 
228 


$13 
13 


$33.46 

17.79 


3 


117 


71 


13 


21.41 


4 


232 


112 


13 


26.92 


6 


183 


66 


13 


36.04 


7 


158 


33 


13 


62.24 


8 


285 


195 


13 


19.00 


9 


90 


48 


13 


24.37 


12 


120 


31 


13 


50.32 


14 


40 


38 


13 


13.68 


15 


109 


41 


13 


32.66 


16 


92 


35 


13 


34.17 


17 


131 


116 


13 


14.68 


18 


49 


22 


13 


28.95 


19 


37 


23 


13 


20.91 


20 


277 


147 


13 


24.50 


21 


84 


34 


13 


32.12 


23 


53 


17 


13 


40.53 


25 


40 


24 


13 


21.66 


26 


47 


42 


13 


14.55 


27 


47 


41 


13 


14.90 


28 


51 


38 


13 


17.45 


29 


126 


61 


13 


26.85 


30 


32 


24 


13 


17.33 


31 


200 


135 


13 


19.26 


32 


134 


150 


13 


11.61 



26 University of Texas Bulletin 

Number 

of 
District 

1 ^H^^^^^^ $5.64 

2 Hi $1.01 

3 ^^^^H^B^^i^iBraH $8.35 

w^^^^^m^mm^^^^^^^m^ma^mm $13.53 
t^^ma^^^mmm^^^ma^^^^mt $ii.84 



7 $.00 



$6.66 



9 ^^aamm $3.10 
12 ^i^^ $2.93 

m^^^mmm^m^mm^mma^^^^a^ 13.71 

15 $.00 

■^^^■i^B^HHI^^HB^Bi^^^^^HHHiHH $14.89 

17 ■■■^^^■■1^^ $6.23 

18 ^■■■■^^■i $4.74 

19 ^^HHl $2.45 

20 i^aama^mmmt $4.74 
amm^a^^ammamm^mai^^^aa^ $ii.40 

23 maa^t^^K^^Kmaam^^m $8.48 

25 H^H^^HHI^^HHH^^^^HB $11.10 

26 $.00 

27 ■■^^^■^^■■■^^^■■^■i $9.89 

^^■■■■■■■■^■■■■^^■■■■i^^Hii $13.19 

29 w^^^Km^ammm^^^^m $8.40 

30 (?) 

mam^^m^^m^amma^^ $4.50 
32 ^^^^m^^mma^^^^^^m $4.93 

DIAGRAM 1. Amounts of School Taxes Collected Per Child En- 
rolled 1921-22. 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 27 

Number 

of 
District 

1 Helena i^HJi^^^l^HiHHHH^^^B^^^^^ $33.46 

2 Yeats Creek HIB^B^HHiHHHi^ 

3 Mound Creek ■■■^■^1^^^^^ 

4 Giliett w^mtm^^^^ma^ 




6 Cestahowa ^mm^^l^^^^BBBBaSBSS^^^^aaa^^m $36.04 

7 Pan-namaria ^■■^^^^^■■■■■^■^^^i^^BB^^l^BHE $62.24 

8 Falls City Hi^H^^BnnHa^^ $19.00 

9 New Bremen ^BBB^BSmnrmmmm^^m^ $24.37 

12 Hobson oH^^^BHi^B^HII^^BBBBH^B^aaBl^^ $50.32 

14 Brieger BH^^^BHHHH $13.68 

15 Metz mmmm^^^^mmi^^^mi^^^a^ $32.66 

17 Green ■BBB^HB^l^^ $14.68 



18 Michna ■^^■MLU.BJ. LI mm HB^^^^IM $28.95 

25 Burnell ^BiB^^BBHI^^^^H^ $21.66 

26 Ruckman ^^■B^KHB^Mi $14.55 

30 Hyatt ^a^SBI^^ail^Hi^ $17.33 

31 Cadillac ^^BBI^^HMHHHHi $19.26 

32 Union Leader WUIIUi^^H $11.61 

DIAGRAM 2. State Apportionment Per Child Actually Enrolled 



CHAPTER IV 

GROUNDS, BUILDINGS, AND EQUIPMENT 

1. Grounds. The areas of the school grounds were ob- 
tained from thirty-two schools. Two have six acres; five 
have four acres ; three have three acres ; two have two and 
one-half acres ; twelve have two acres ; five have one acre ; 
and one has one-half acre. Seventeen of the schools have 
their grounds fenced. In twelve instances it was noted by 
the observer that the fences are very neat and in good re- 
pair. In this respect Choate, Cadillac, and Mound Creek 
deserve special mention. 

Most of the playgrounds observed were adequately pro- 
vided with courts for basketball or for volley ball. In four- 
teen instances there was plenty of suitable space for base- 
ball and race courses. Nine playgrounds were adequately 
equipped with swings, seesaws, and horizontal bars. Eigh- 
teen were well supplied with native shade trees ; oaks, hack- 
berries, elms, and mesquite. About thirty of the schools 
should have additional play equipment in the way of swings, 
see-saws, slides, giant strides, etc. ; and those without shade 
trees like Cadillac, Choate, Gillett and some others should 
set out young trees at once and care for them till they are 
well started. 

2. Water Supply. Twelve of the schools from which in- 
formation was obtained procured their water from cisterns, 
and ten from wells. Some of the cisterns and one or two of 
the open wells without pumps appeared not in the best of 
sanitary conditions. The school trustees should see to it 
that these matters are remedied at once. Every school well 
should have a pump in it and should have a top constructed 
in such a way that water cannot run back into the well. 
Drainage around the well is of fundamental importance. 

In nineteen instances it was observed that the drinking 
water was distributed by means of approved bubblers or by 
hydrants and individual cups. At a number of other places 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 29 

buckets, dippers, and cups were in use. This is not in ac- 
cordance with the best practices of school sanitation. All 
common water buckets and common dippers and drinking 
cups should be discarded. 

3. .Heating and Ventilation. Karnes County is so far 
south that the school room doors and windows stand open 
and fire is not necessary on most of the winter days. This 
very materially reduces the problems of schoolroom ventila- 
tion. However, the cold and the rain sometimes come. 
When they do, the best of heating and ventilating systems 
should be had. For that reason all of the old-fashioned 
box stoves now in use should be discarded and replaced by 
self-ventilating jacketed stoves with outside air intakes. 
Twenty-two of the thirty-nine rural schools in Karnes Coun- 
ty are equipped with modern jacketed stoves and seventeen 
still have unjacketed stoves. The jacketed stove gives a 
uniform temperature throughout the school room and keeps 
it thoroughly supplied with fresh warm air taken in through 
the ventilator. Fresh, pure air is conducive to straight 
thinking and healthful mental activity. The old-fashioned 
heating stove has no place in a modern school room. 

4. Lighting. In twenty-three of the thirty-nine schools 
the windows were properly grouped and the light came from 
one direction only. In sixteen of the schools the windows 
were not properly grouped or scientifically placed. Most 
of the school buildings with windows placed in a miscel- 
laneous fashion are old buildings that have been in use for 
many years. Most of the windows in both the old and the 
new buildings were equipped with adjustable shades, but 
unfortunately in many instances, the teachers were failing 
to see to it that the shades were kept in proper adjustment. 
Cloudy days require more light than clear days. A group 
of windows on the east side of a building will receive more 
light in the forenoon than in the afternoon, and a group 
on the west side will receive more light in the afternoon 
than in the forenoon. These variations in the amount of 
light from day to day and from forenoon to afternoon 
should be regulated by windowshades. That is what win- 



30 University of Texas Bulletin 

dowshades are for. They should be regulated every day 
and sometimes two or three times during the day. Many 
of the teachers are failing at this point. 

5. Seating. A great many old-fashioned double desks 
were found in use in the Karnes County rural schools. The 
double desk has long since been condemned by the best 
school authorities. The single desk has taken its place. 
The single desk is preferable for both pupils and teacher. 

It reduces the problems of schoolroom discipline and 
renders effective study and seat work possible. Most 
schoolrooms with modern equipment have installed single 
desks with all the desks in each row of the same size, and 
the sizes of the desks adapted to the sizes of the pupils in 
the room. 

In quite a number of schools the character of work done 
could be greatly improved if the pupils were more comfort- 
ably seated. The following statistics show improper seat- 
ing of pupils: Brady Hill had 15 who were not properly 
seated ; Mays Crossing, 10 ; Helena, 4 ; Lenz, 20 ; Arnold, 6 ; 
Metz, 30 ; Union Leader, 7 ; Falls City, 12 ; Choate, 30 ; Ruck- 
man, 9 ; Overby, 15 ; Gillett, 10 ; Mound Creek, 20 ; Pleasant, 
Brieger and Michna are almost entirely equipped with 
double desks. All of the pupils in these schools were, 
therefore, not properly seated for accomplishing satisfac- 
tory work. 

6. Maps, Charts, and Blackboards. The schools at 
Brady Hill and Ruckman did not have sufficient blackboard 
space. A few of the schools, like the one at Helena, have 
blackboards that are in very poor condition. These mat- 
ters should be called to the attention of the schoolboards 
and corrected before the opening of the next school term. 

7. Libra7'ies. The principals of the schools reported 
the number of library books as follows: Live Oak, 250; 
Eckhardt, 150; Miller League, 50; Helena, 100; Lenz, 40; 
Brieger, 65 ; Cadillac, 175 ; Union Leader, 35 ; Falls City, 98 ; 
Burnell, 100 ; Choate, 200 ; Crews, 62 ; Pleasant, 16 ; Overby, 
100; Pullin, 45; Green, 200; Gillett, 100; Mound Creek, 
140; Pannamaria, 50; Harmony, 142. 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 31 

Nineteen schools did not report on their libraries. Most 
of those not reporting have no libraries. Unfortunately, 
many of the books owned by the schools that do have li- 
braries are not very well adapted to the needs of the elemen- 
tary rural schools of Karnes County. Most of the pupils in 
attendance are below the sixth grade. What such pupils 
most need in their school libraries is an abundance of simple 
story material. Especially is this true in those communities 
where there are so many country pupils who have great dif- 
ficulty in learning to read and speak English because their 
parents do not speak English at home. 

8. Laboratories. So far as was ascertained through the 
channels of this survey, Choate, Helena, Harmony, and 
Mound Creek were the only schools possessing any labora- 
tory apparatus. The Choate school has $150 worth of agri- 
cultural apparatus and Harmony, Mound Creek, and He- 
lena have about $75.00 worth of physiology and physical 
geography apparatus. 



CHAPTER V 

THE RURAL SCHOOL TEACHERS OF KARNES 
COUNTY 

Karnes County has 39 rural free schools employing 58 
teachers. Forty-five of the teachers who filled out and re- 
turned the questionnaires used in the school survey are 
women and thirteen are men. Sixty-four per cent of the 
women teachers were born and reared in the country , 27 
per cent in villages, and 9 per cent in towns and cities. 
Seventy-seven per cent of the men teachers were born and 
reared in the country and 23 per cent in villages. The rural 
schools of Karnes County are not being taught bythe newly- 
graduated town and city high-school girls so often given un- 
favorable mention in pedagogical literature because of their 
immaturity and unfamiliarity with country ways and the 
rural point of view. 

Age and Teaching Experience. The median age for the 
men teachers was 32 years. For the women teachers it was 
23 years. The median teaching experience for the men 
teachers was 8 years. For the women teachers it was 4 
years. The men in the service are nine years older than 
the women in the service and have taught twice as long as 
the women. This is a much better showing than was found 
in Wichita County where a rural school survey was recently 
made. In Wichita County the median teaching experience 
for the men was 6 3/4 years and for the women 1.9 years. 

The increased range of teaching experience in Karnes 
County is attributed to two things: (1) Co-operation be- 
tween the County Superintendent and the boards of school 
trustees from year to year in employing capable new teach- 
ers, and in retaining the old ones who have given satisfac- 
tory service; (2) The fact that the County Superintendent 
has been in office for six years diligently working to build 
up a capable corps of teachers for the rural schools of the 
county. After having observed the character of instruction 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 33 

in almost every schoolroom of the county the witer is of 
the opinion that Karnes County has one of the most cap- 
able body of country school teachers he has ever seen in 
action. So much to the credit of the County Superin- 
tendent and the boards of school trustees. 

Though a median teaching experience of 8 years for the 
men and 4 years for the women is, in all probability, con- 
siderably above the median teaching experience for the 
rural teachers of Texas, it is by no means as high as it 
should be. What would be the status of the professions of 
law and medicine today, if our lawyers and doctors had 
such limited backgrounds of experience? Before teaching 
can become a real profession, it must become the life work 
of those engaged in it. School patrons and school trustees 
can do much to hasten the coming of that day by the length- 
ening of school terms, the improvement of school equip- 
ment, the paying of adequate salaries, and the providing of 
comfortable living conditions in the way of teachers' homes, 
thus inducing a greater number of able men and women to 
enter the work of teaching and to remain permanently in it. 

Certification. In the white public schools of Texas 19.6 
per cent of the men teachers and 31.8 per cent of the women 
teachers are holders of second grade certificates. In the 
white rural schools of Karnes County 23 per cent of the 
men teachers and 48.8 per cent of the women teachers hold 
second grade certificates. The percentage of second grade 
certificates held by the white teachers of the rural schools 
of Karnes County is somewhat above the percentage of 
second grade certificates held by all of the white toachers 
of Texas. 

Thirty-eight per cent of the men teachers in the rural 
schools of Karnes County hold first grade certificates as 
compared with 47 per cent for the white men teachers of 
Texas. Forty per cent of the women teachers of Karnes 
County hold first grade certificates as compared with 39.2 
per cent for Texas. The number of men teachers holding 
first grade certificates is thus considerably below the av- 



34 University of Texas Bulletin 

erage for the State, while the number of women holding 
first grade certificates is slightly above the average. 

Thirty-eight per cent of the men teachers of the county 
are holders of permanent certificates as compared with 33.6 
per cent for the white men teachers of the State. Eleven 
per cent of the women teachers are holders of permanent 
and permanent primary certificates as compared with 29.1 
per cent for the State. The percentage of permanent and 
permanent primary certificates for the women teachers of 
Karnes County is very low. 

To bring the certification of the rural teachers of Karnes 
County up to the average for the teachers of all the free 
elementary and secondary schools of Texas, there would 
have to be more with permanent certificates, and fewer 
men and women with second grade certificates. Some of 
the best teaching observed in Karnes County was done by 
mature and experienced teachers of good personalities who 
were the holders of second grade certificates, but the teach- 
ers holding the higher grades of certificates showed a higher 
average of good teaching. 

High School, College, and Normal School Attendance. 
Sixty-nine per cent of the men teachers and 68.2 per cent 
of the women teachers had graduated from high school. 
To say that all of those who did not graduate from high 
school have less than high-school education would be both 
untrue and unfair. Several of the teachers who did not 
graduate from high school later attended normal schools. 
Two graduated from normal schools without previously 
graduating from standard high schools. 

Twenty-three per cent of the men teachers and 4.4 per 
cent of the women teachers were graduates of colleges or 
normal schools. The attendance upon colleges and normal 
schools was considerably better for the men teachers than 
for the women teachers. The 13 men teachers showed a 
total college and normal school attendance of 26 1/^ years, 
or an average of two years each. The 45 women teachers 
showed a total college and normal school attendance of 311/2 
years, or an average of .7 year each. 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 35 

Forty-seven per cent of the women teachers and 31 per 
cent of the men teachers spent the previous summer vaca- 
tion in further professional preparation at universities and 
normal schools. Here, again, some of the members of 
school boards are to be commended, inasmuch as some of 
the raises of salaries for the present year were made con- 
tingent upon normal school attendance during the last sum- 
mer vacation. In this way some teachers have been en- 
couraged to raise the grades of their certificates and others 
have taken special courses, thereby better fitting themselves 
for specialized lines of school work. This practice on the 
part of school boards should be encouraged and continued. 
It is one of the best means for raising the professional 
standards of the teachers they employ. 

Salaries aiid Annual Savings. Salaries for the men 
teachers ranged from $100 per month to $166.66 per month, 
the median being $125. For the women teachers the range 
was from $75 to $150 per month, the median being $100. 
The median length of school term for the county was eight 
months, thus producing an annual median salary of $1,000 
for the men teachers and $800 for the women teachers. 

Fifty-five per cent of the men reported having made 
amounts ranging from $200 to $1,200 last year from sources 
other than teaching. Forty-five per cent of the men re- 
ported that they had no other incomes than their salaries 
as teachers last year. Four of the 45 women teachers 
earned amounts ranging from $20 to $150 outside of their 
regular teaching salaries last year. The average amount 
earned from sources other than teaching last year was $238 
for the men and $5.33 for the women. 

The monthly living expenses for the men and their de- 
pendents, including board, clothing, and transportation, 
ranged from $20 to $100 per month, the median being $30. 
For the women it ranged from $15 to $100 per month, the 
median being $30. The average amounts saved and in- 
vested last year were $342.30 for the men and $207.11 for 
the women. 

Living Conditions. Sixty-nine per cent of the men were 



36 University of Texas Bulletin 



SEX 

Men: ^ma^^mmmma 22.4% 

Women : ^^^■■H^HBH^^^^^lHHHHHBHH^HH 77.6% 
MEDIAN AGES 

Men: wmmm^^^^i^mamm^^^mmmmmmmmmm^^ 32 Years 

Women : Bl^^^MiMBBBBBBBi^^Mi^BB^BBM 23 Years 

MEDIAN AGES WHEN THEY BEGAN TEACHING 
Men: HHIHII^^HHIH^^^^HHHHI^^ 20 Years 



Women : ■■^■SBBB^B^BMI^MMHI 18 Years 

MEDIAN TEACHING EXPERIENCE 
Men: IBB^^BB^ 8 Years 
Women : l^^* 4 Years 

MEDIAN SALARIES 

Men: mmmm^^K^mammm^^^mmmmmmmm^Bam $1,000 per year 

Women : ■■■■^■■^■■■■i^**"^^^**^"^^** $800 per year 

DIAGRAM 3. Median Ages, Ages When They Began Teaching, 
Teaching Experience, and Salaries of the Rural Teachers of Karnes 
County. 



SECOND GRADE CERTIFICATES 

Men: ^^^■■^^HHHHH 23% 

FIRST GRADE CERTIFICATES 

Men: mmtm^mm^B^aaam^^mBMm^ 38.4% 
Women-.^mmm^aaa^^^M^^^mmmm^^m^ 40% 

PERMANENT CERTIFICATES 

Men: ^^^^^■■■^^■I^^^BHH^H 38.4% 
Women : ■^■^^^M 11.1% 

HIGH-SCHOOL GRADUATES 

Men: mt^^ammmimm^mt^^^mmK^^mam^^^m 69.2% 
Womeni^^ma^^^^^^^mmm^^mm^mmmmB^m 68.8% 

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE UPON COLLEGES OR NORMAL 
SCHOOLS 
Men: ^^^^^^^■■■■■■■■^^^^ 2 Years 
Women : ^^■■■■B .7 Year 

Diagram 4. Professional Qualifications of the Men and Women 
Teaching in the Rural Schools of Karnes County. 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 37 

married and maintaining independent households. The re- 
maining men teachers were single and boarding. Twenty- 
seven per cent of the women teachers were married ; 13 per 
cent were doing light housekeeping; 58 per cent were 
boarding; and 22 per cent were living with their parents. 
Thirty-eight per cent of the men teachers and 13 per cent 
of the women teachers lived in teacherages. / 

Forty-two per cent of the women teachers and 54 per cent / 
of the men teachers lived less than one-fourth mile from I 
the schoolhouse ; 14 per cent of the women lived from one- ( 
fourth to one mile from the schoolhouse ; and 44 per cent ^ 
of the men and 46 per cent of the women lived more than 
one mile away. In some instances, women teachers living 
more than one mile from the schoolhouse experienced great 
difficulty in reaching school when the roads were muddy. 
A few of the teachers owning automobiles lived from three 
to eight miles from the schools they taught. 

For many of the women teachers the facilities for getting 
to town to shop were very poor. Forty-seven per cent of 
them reported that they had no way of getting to town. 
The 53 per cent reporting practical means for getting to 
town relied, for the most part, upon train service, service 
cars, their parents' cars, and the charity of neighbors. 

That the extreme isolation caused discontentment and 
unhappiness on the part of some of the young women 
teachers there can be no doubt. With the men teachers 
the case was quite different. Each of the men teachers, 
with one exception, owned a Ford car and was free to make 
trips to town and to other places whenever he chose to do so. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE PUPILS 

1. The Ages of the Pupils and the Grades in Which They 
Are Classified. In Texas the fiscal school year begins on the 
first day of September. All children who have passed their 
seventh birthday before the first day of September are en- 
titled to free school tuition during the ensuing school year. 
Though the customary age for entering school is the age of 
seven, before the end of the school year many of the children 
will have become eight years old. For that reason the nor- 
mal age for the first grade pupils towards the end of the 
school year will be seven and eight years ; for the second 
grade pupils eight and nine ; for the third grade pupils 
nine and ten years, etc. 

Table No. 3 shows the ages and the grades of 1,406 pupils 
enrolled in 32 rural schools at the time this investigation 
was made in March, 1922. None of the purely Mexican 
schools was included in this table. It is most probable that 
the age-grade distribution of pupils shown in this table is 
typical for the country children of white parentage in a 
great many of the counties of south-west Texas. In this 
table the pupils of normal age for the grades in which they 
are classified are included between the zigzag lines running 
from the upper left-hand corner to the lower right-hand 
corner of the page. The "over-age" pupils, or those be- 
hind the grades you would expect to find them in, appear to 
the left of the zigzag lines, and the "under-age" pupils, or 
those ahead of the grades you would expect to find them in, 
appear to the right of the zigzag lines. 

An examination of Table No. 3 shows that in the first 
grade there are 5 boys five years old, and 17 boys and 15 
girls six years old, constituting the "under-age" pupils for 
the first grade ; 60 boys and 50 girls seven years old and 47 
boys and 37 girls eight years, constituting the pupils of nor- 
mal age for the first grade ; and a total of 143 boys and girls 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 39 

ranging from nine to fourteen years of age, constituting the 
"over-age" pupils of the first grade. In like manner the 
number of "under-age," "over-age," and "normal-age" pu- 
pils may be ascertained for each of the grades appearing in 
this table. Of the 1,406 pupils appearing in this table 9.1 
per cent are "under-age"; 52.7 per cent are of "normal- 
age" ; and 38.2 per cent are "over-age." 

The ages of the pupils are graphically shown in Diagram 
5. This diagram shows that the heaviest school attendance 
of the children of the schools of Karnes County (not in- 
cluding the purely Mexican schools) is during the period 
from 8 to 11 years of age. By the time the age of 15 is 
reached, all but 4.1 per cent of the pupils have dropped out 
of school. 

2. Causes of ''Over-Age" Pupils, (a) Of the 1,406 
pupils accounted for in Table No. 3, 104 of the girls and 100 
of the boys entered school for the first time this year. Of 
this group of 204 children entering school for the first time 
this year, five were 5 years old; thirty-eight, 6 years old; 
seventy-four, 7 years old ; fifty-five, 8 years old ; thirty, 9 
years old ; one, 10 years old ; and one, 11 years old. Forty- 
three per cent of these 204 children were over seven years 
old when they entered school, their median age being 7.8 
years. One of the causes for so many over-age pupils in the 
country schools of Karnes County is that many of the chil- 
dren are "over-age" when they start to school. 

(b) Another cause for the "over-age" group of pupils in 
Karnes County is irregular school attendance. That is 
fully discussed in Chapter VIII of this bulletin. 

(c) Table No. 3 shows that 27.3 per cent of the pupils 
are enrolled in the first grade. (This does not include any 
of the purely Mexican schools.) In some instances where 
the schools are over-crowded the first grade is not being 
taught as well as it should be. For that reason some pupils 
remain in the first grade for two or more years. They get 
behind in the first grade and remain behind as long as they 
stay in school. 

(d) Some of the schools accounted for in Table No. 3 



40 University of Texas Bulletin 

had a few Mexican children enrolled in them. Of the 1,406 
pupils included in this table 146 are Mexicans. As Table 
No. 4 shows, most of the Mexican children are "over-age." 
This, in part, accounts for the. "over-age" pupils in the Non- 
Mexican and mixed schools from which age-grade data 
were compiled. 

3. The Mexican Pupils. There are six Mexican coun- 
try schools in Karnes County. Age-grade classification 
sheets were obtained from five of them. Of the 189 pupils 
enrolled in these five schools, 151 were in the first grade; 
26, in the second grade ; 8, in the third grade ; and 4, in the 
fourth grade. An examination of Table No. 4 shows that 
out of the 151 pupils in the first grade 111 are over-age, 2 
are under-age, and 38 of the normal age for first grade 
pupils. The "over-age" Mexican pupils in the first grade 
run as follows : 18 are nine years old ; 20 are ten years old ; 
14 are eleven years old ; 26 are twelve years old ; 13 are 
thirteen years old ; 16 are fourteen years old ; 3 are fifteen 
years old ; and 1 is seventeen years old. Seventy-three per 
cent of the pupils in the five Mexican schools are "over-age." 

There are very few schools in the county that do not have 
some Mexican children in attendance. It may be that the 
advancement of the Mexican children in the schools with the 
American children is somewhat better than it is in the 
schools that have none except Mexican children in attend- 
ance. However, the fact remains that practically all of the 
Mexican children are in the first and second grades. No 
separate age-grade data were obtained for the Mexican chil- 
dren in the schools of mixed Mexican and American attend- 
ance, but the County Superintendent estimated that there 
were not more than thirty Mexican pupils in all of the 
country schools of the county that were above second grade. 

This is speaking for a rural Mexican scholastic popula- 
tion of 1,497 children, 460 of whom were enrolled in school. 

4. Separate Schools for the Mexican Children. The 
more thoughtful representatives of the Mexican race are 
opposed to any general policy of separate schools for the 
Mexican children. The Mexicans are legally classed as 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 41 



TABLE N0.3 

Age-Grade Classification of Pupils 

(This includes 1,406 pupils enrolled in 32 rural Schools none of 
which is a purely Mexican school. There are a few Mexican chil- 
dren enrolled in these schools, the total number in all the schools 
being 146.) 







Age 






Totals 


Grades 


Sex 


4 


5 


6 


7 


s 

47^ 
37 


9 


10 


U 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 

and 
over 




1 


Boys 
Girls 




5 


17 
15 


60 
50 


24 
25 


24 
11 


16 
10 


10 

7 


2 
3 


10 
1 
















215 
159 


2 


Boys 
Girls 








9 
15 


23 
38 


26 
13 


21 

5 


9 

5 


6 
4 


5 
4 


3 
2 


1 

1 














103 

87 


3 


Boys 
Girls 








1 


10 
9 


26 

28 


20 
34 


20 
8 


15 
5 


8 
7 


3 

4 


2 














103 

97 


4 


Boys 
Girls 










1 


5 
10 


14 
15 


23 

22 


22 13 
15 9 


9 

7 


3 

4 


1 












83 


5 


Boys 
Girls 












1 


4 
8 


24 
15 


20 
16 


21 
<> 


14 

8 


3 
5 


1 


1 










86 
64 


6 


Boys 
Girls 












1 


' 6 

4 


13 
14 


15 

14 

^13 

21 


9 

8 

20 

14 


19 
4 

12 


3 
4 


2 
2 










68 
50 
48 
49 


7 


Boys 
Girls 


















2 
1 


1 










8 


Boys 
Girls 




















2 


9 
4 


10 

12 

6 

4 


5 

7 


b 
8 


1 
4 


1 






36 


9 


{Boys 
Girls 




















1 
1 


1 
5 


1 

3 


2 
1 


1 








12 
14 


10 


Boys 
Girls 
























1 


7 


1 






I 




9 


11- 


Boys 
Girls 








































12 


Boys 
Girls 








































Total- - 


JBoys 

"i^irls 




5 


17 
15 


70 
65 


81 
84 


81 

77 


84 

73 




98 
64 


91 
61 


80 
68 


78 
53 


50 

45 


11 
24 


9 
14 


2 
4 


1 


I 




758 
648 
1406 



white and many of those of the better classes are white 
both in body and in spirit and have come to Texas to live 
as permanent American citizens. They should be accorded 
full rights to the free school system. 

In general, it should be stated that separate schools are 
preferable for both the Mexicans and the Americans. That 
is the case in most of the instances where separate schools 



/? 



Univei'sity of Texas Bulletin 



TABLE NO. 4 

Age-Grade Classification of Mexican Pupils 

(This table includes 189 Mexican children taken from five rural 
schools with none but Mexican children enrolled in them.) 





Sex 


Age 


Totals 




4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 
and 
over 




1 


Boys 
Girls 




1 


1 


11 
4 


11 
12 


14 

4 


14 
6 


8 
6 


12 

14 


9 
4 


12 
4 


3 




1 










93 
58 


2 


Boys 
Girls 












9 
1 




3 


2 


1 

2 


1 

1 


2 
2 


1 


1 










19 
7 


3 


Boys 
Girls 
















2 


2 


2 


2 
















8 


4 


Boys 
Girls 
















1 






2 




1 












4 


5 


Boys 
Girls 








































6 


Boys 
Girls 








































7 


Boys 
Girls 








































8 


Boys 
Girls 








































9 


Boys 
Girls 








































10 


Boys 
Girls 








































11 


Boys 
Girls 








































12 










































Total - ■ 


Boys 
"Girls 




1 


1 


11 
14 


11 

12 


23 
5 


14 

6 


13 

7 


16 
14 


12 
6 


15 

7 


2 
5 


2 


2 










120 
69 










































189 



NOTE: The Mexican pupils of normal age for the g^rades in 
which they appear are included between the zigzag lines running 
from the upper left-hand corner to the lower right-hand corner of 
the page. Those to the right of the zigzag lines are "over-age" 
and those to the left are "under-age." The pupils enrolled in these 
five Mexican schools are 73 per cent "over-age," 1.1 per cent "under- 
age," and 25.9 per cent of normal age. 



for the Mexicans have been established. The American 
children and the clean high-minded Mexican children do 
not like to go to school with the dirty "greaser" type of 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 43 

Mexican child. It is not right that they should have to do 
so. The better thing is to put the "dirty" ones into sep- 
arate schools till they learn how to "clean up" and become 
eligible to better society. 

Again, wherever there are enough Mexican children to 
justify it, it is much better for them to be provided with 
separate schools or with special rooms and special classes 
till they have passed through the first and second grades of 
the elementary schools. By that time they will have gained 
a sufficient knowledge of school life and the English lan- 
guage to enable them to fit with better advantage into the 
classes with the American children. The Mexican child of 
the first or the second grade in a large class of American 
children, being taught in the English language that it does 
not understand, is almost hopelessly handicapped. It would 
fare much better in a special class or in a special school for 
Mexican children only. 

AGE PER CENT OF PUPILS OF EACH AGE 

5 m .3% 

6 m^tm^ 2.2% 
^mtm^^^^^^^^a^^^^^^^mm g.6% 

^^^^^mmammammm^^maaBmmaaaaumm 11.2% 
m^^^^^^^^^mmi^a^^^Kmmmm^^^ 11.2% 
m^^^mmm^imm^^^mmmmm^^^^^am 11.5% 
^Km^m^^mm^^mmmammmmm^mmam^m 10.8% 
13 mmm^mmm^mmma^mBa^i^imKmumaam 10.5% 
mmm^mmtm^^mamm^^^^^^^^m g.3% 
w^ma^mm^^^mm^^^ 6.8% 

16 

17 

DIAGRAM 5. The Ages of 1,406 Pupils Enrolled in Thirty-two 
Rural Schools of Karnes County. 



CHAPTER VII 

COURSE OF STUDY 

A conception of the course of study can best be had by- 
naming the subjects taught and the number of pupils study- 
ing each subject. These data cover 34 schools with 1691 
pupils enrolled. In the elementary grades there were 1333 
pupils studying reading; 1322, writing; 1474, arithmetic; 
1271, spelling; 381, English grammar; 681, oral and writ- 
ten English language lessons ; 655, physiology and hygiene ; 
587, descriptive geography; 260, nature study; 158, draw- 
ing; 91, Texas History; 59, agriculture; 55, civics. In the 
high-school grades there were 86 studying algebra; 80, 
English composition and rhetoric ; 50, agriculture ; 28, plane 
geometry; 24, advanced physiology; 16, civics and govern- 
ment ; 13 ; American history ; 3, English history ; 63, other 
history courses ; 14, foreign languages ; 4, American litera- 
ture ; 5, manual training. 

It is interesting to note from the above figures that 78.8 
per cent of all the pupils enrolled in these 34 schools are 
studying reading; 78.7 per cent writing; 80.7 per cent 
arithmetic ; 75.2 per cent spelling. The grade classification 
was obtained for 1595 of the 1870 pupils enrolled in the 
rural schools of Karnes County at the time this survey was 
made. There were 93.6 per cent of this number in the 
grades below high school. 

Since the primary function of the public school is to pre- 
pare for citizenship, much emphasis should be placed on 
civics and citizenship in the course of study. However, only 
3.7 per cent of the pupils in the elementary grades, and 15. 4 
per cent of those in the high-school grades are studying 
civics as a school subject. Putting the same thing in other 
words, out of a total scholastic population of 3299 in the 
rural schools of Karnes County there are 71 pupils, or 2,1 
per cent, reciting lessons in civics. Does this argue well 
for the future of democracy? 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 45 



Reading 




■IHHI 78.8% 


Writing 
Arithmetic 
Spelling 

English grammar 
Language lessons 
Physiology and hygiene 
Descriptive geography 
Nature study 




■■■■ 78.7% 








^^^^" 1 0.4 /o 










^a^^m 15.4% 




Texas history 


^ 5.4% 




Agriculture 


m 3.5% 




Civics 


■ 3.2% 
HIGH-SCHOOL GRADES 




Algebra 


■■i 5% 




Rhetoric and composition 


1 la 4.7% 




Agriculture 


■ 2.9% 




Civics and government 


■ 1% 




American history 


.8% 




English history 


'■ .2% 




Other history courses 


^ 3.7% 




Foreign languages 


I .9% 




American literature 


■ .2% 




Manual training 


■ .3^0 





DIAGRAM 6. Per Cent of Pupils Studying Each Subject Taught 
in the Rural Schools of Karnes County for 1921-22. (Percentages 
are based on total school enrollment, including both elementary and 
high-school grades.) 

The one big school task for the Mexican children and for 
the other children of non-English speaking parents is to 
learn the English language. Most of them realize the need 
for the knowledge of numbers in business transactions. 
This partly accounts for the very large percentage of the 
pupils enrolled in school studying reading, arithmetic, writ- 
ing, and spelling. 

The author of this survey knows very little about the 
psychology of the Mexican child. On the average, the 
teachers of the Mexican schools know just as little as this 



46 Unive7'sity of Texas Bulletin 

author does. They are not specially trained to teach Mex- 
ican children. As is true in the American schools, the 
teachers of the Mexican schools follow the textbooks very 
closely. The textbooks do most of the teaching. But the 
textbooks are made for the English-speaking-, English-think- 
ing pupils. By all means, some one who understands Mex- 
ican people and the workings of the Mexican children's 
minds should write a set of elementary textbooks for use in 
the Mexican schools. Such a person would render a great 
service to Mexican education in southwest Texas. 

The foregoing data indicate that the burden of the school 
work in Karnes County is the teaching of the rudiments of 
reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic. It yet remains 
for the rural high school, laying stress on agriculture, home 
making, citizenship and community building to be developed. 



CHAPTER VIII 

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 

1. Enrollment and Attendance. The average length of 
school term in Karnes County for the school year 1920-21 
was 150 days. There were 3333 pupils enumerated in the 
common-school districts. There were 1628, or 48.8 per 
cent, of these 3333 pupils enrolled in school that year. The 
total aggregate attendance of 148,129 days gives an av- 
erage attendance of 987 pupils for each of the 150 days 
school was open. The 987 pupils in average daily attend- 
ance constituted 29.6 per cent of 3333 enumerated as of 
free school age. Putting it in other words, for each 29.6 
pupils actually attending the free schools each day school 
was open last year, there were 70.4 pupils who either went 
to the parochial schools or stayed at home. A small per- 
centage of the pupils who are out of school have completed 
their high school education. 

Figures on school attendance for the school year 1921-22 
could not be had at the time this school survey was con- 
ducted in March, 1922. But the school enrollment figures 
for 1921-22 are considerably better than for the previous 
year. Of the 3299 pupils enumerated 1870 had been en- 
rolled in school when this survey was made. This year 
there were 56.7 per cent of the children of free-school age 
enrolled in school as compared with 48.8 per cent for last 
year. 

The causes for the poor attendance upon the free schools 
in the rural districts of Karnes County may be summed up 
in two propositions: (1) There are four parochial schools 
in the county with approximately 400 children enrolled in 
them; (2) Very few of the Mexican children go to school. 

2. The Parochial Schools. The parochial schools are 
under the auspices of the Catholic Church. As this survey 
was to include only the rural free schools of the County, no 
effort was made to examine the character and scope of the 



48 University of Texas Bulletin 

work nor the regularity of school attendance in the pa- 
rochial schools. However, it might be well to mention that 
the strength of the parochial schools is in the Polish com- 
munities and that many of the Polish children not enrolled 
in the free schools attend the parochial schools. Whether 
the use of the English language is rigidly and regularly re- 
quired in the classrooms of these parochial schools, the 
author of this survey does not know. But on the play- 
grounds at the parochial schools, the author can say that 
the the use of English is not being enforced as it is on the 
playgrounds of the free schools. From the predominance 
of the Polish language in the communities where the pa- 
rochial schools are located, the indications are that English 
always has been badly understressed. 

3. The Mexicans. As has already been pointed out, 
much of the poor school attendance in Karnes County is 
due to the large percentage of Mexican people. This year 
out of a Mexican scholastic population of 1497 there are 
only 460 Mexican children enrolled in the rural public 
schools of the county. The reasons why the Mexican pa- 
rents do not send their children to school are fully discussed 
in the chapter on "The People of Karnes County," pages 
7> to 12 of this bulletin. 



CHAPTER IX 

CONSOLIDATION AND TRANSPORTATION 

1. Consolidation. In the rural districts of Karnes Coun- 
ty there are 24 one-teacher schools, 9 two-teacher schools, 
3 three-teacher schools, 2 four-teacher schools, and 1 five- 
teacher school. There are 14 of the 39 rural schools for 
white children in Karnes County that are classified as rural 
high schools. Indications were that the best rural high 
school work in the county was being done at Choate, Cadil- 
lac, Gillette, and Falls City. These are schools with from 
three to five teachers each. To do first class rural high 
school work there must be larger aggregations of pupils and 
teachers and more equipment than is commonly found in 
schools of one and two teachers. 

As matters now stand, only a small per cent of the coun- 
try children of Karnes County have practical access to high 
school privileges. High school advantages can never be 
had for all of the children except through better school or- 
ganization. As the demand for high school advantages in- 
creases there will be corresponding readjustments in the 
school organizations from time to time. School district 
boundary lines will be changed, school buildings will be en- 
larged and the equipment increased, more teachers will be 
added, and high school opportunities afforded children 
throughout the county. 

School consolidation will play an important role in the 
reorganization and the future development of the schools in 
many portions of Karnes County. Already considerable 
headway has been made in the county. There have been six 
consolidations effected during the last five years. So far as 
the author was able to learn, all of these consolidations have 
proven satisfactory and successful and have operated for 
the upbuilding of educational advantages where their in- 
fluence has been felt. 

2. Transportation. Transportation is the handmaid 



50 University of Texas Bulletin 

and companion of consolidation. Good roads and automo- 
bile transportation are destined to work miracles in the 
future of rural education in Texas. They make it possible 
for children to go longer distances and reach larger schools 
with more teachers and better equipment than was possible 
for them under the conditions that existed a generation or 
two ago. 

There are two school transportation conveyances now 
operating in Karnes County. In the Cadillac district there 
is an automobile truck that brings about 20 children to 
school and takes them home each day. The man who owns 
the truck is paid $100 per month for this service to the com- 
munity. So far as could be learned the pupils, teachers, and 
patrons of the community were highly pleased with this 
method of going to and coming from school. In the Union 
Leader district there is another motor conveyance operated 
in the same manner and producing similar results to the one 
in the Cadillac district. 

There are a number of instances in the county where 
automobile transportation of school children at public ex- 
pense could be put into operation to advantage. The five 
schools in the Falls City district could be brought together 
in this way. That would enable the district to equip and 
maintain an excellent rural high school operated with fewer 
teachers than the number now employed in the five schools 
of the district. When the San Antonio-Corpus Christi 
highway is finished, the children of the Burnell district coukl 
be transported to Green with advantage. By that means 
Green could put on five teachers instead of four and pro- 
vide better school equipment for the enlarged new district 
than either district has under the present system. The 
New Bremen school could be transported to Karnes City to 
advantage to the children of the New Bremen district. 



PART II 

CHAPTER X 

RESULTS FROM STANDARD TESTS 

It is the purpose of this part of the survey to set forth 
the results obtained by giving two standard tests to the 
children of the county under consideration. The aim of 
this work is to determine the proficiency of these pupils in 
the subjects of the curriculum to which the lists pertain, 
and to determine to what extent such results are due to the 
conditions shown in Part I of the report. The tests under 
consideration are the Courtis Arithmetic Test Series B, and 
the Monroe Silent Reading Test, Form I. Both of these 
tests have been used extensively in all parts of the country 
so that only a brief description of them need be given. 
The Courtis Test has to do with the four fundamental pro- 
cesses in arithmetic and takes into consideration both the 
rate and accuracy at which the work is done. The Monroe 
Reading Test is concerned with silent reading ability and 
gives the child credit for both the rate at which he works 
and the ability which he exhibits in comprehension. 

The reason for the selection of tests of these types is 
apparent. The fundamentals in arithmetic and silent read- 
ing are among the minimum essentials of a course of study 
for country schools. While it may be true that the schools 
in the country cannot give their pupils all the advantages 
which might be desired, yet if such schools are to do any- 
thing for their constituency, they should teach the four 
fundamental processes in arithmetic and they should see 
that the children develop the ability to read. That the rural 
communities of Karnes County have this point of view is 
shown by the fact that nearly all the pupils enrolled in the 
schools of the county study both reading and arithmetic. 

Results are to be shown from nine schools. These schools 
were visited by the writer and County Superintendent 



52 University of Texas Bulletin 

Lightsey during the week of April 21 to 28. The tests were 
all given in these schools by the writer. This plan made it 
necessary to give the tests on different days and at different 
hours of the day. It should also be mentioned that Mr. 
Lightsey had made considerable use of tests in the county 
so that the children had some practice in taking tests. This 
eliminated any element of "stage fright." In only a few 
cases did children fail to enter into the spirit of the tests, 
and so fail to do their best. 

The results for the reading test are shown in Graphs I 
and II, and those for the arithmetic test are seen in Table V. 

TABLE V. 
Results for the Courtis Standard Arithmetic Tests 



Grade 

Standards in Rate.... 

This County 

Standards in Accuracy. 
This County 



Grade 

Standards in Rate 

This County 

Standards in Accuracy. 
This County 



Grade 

Standards in Rate 

This County 

Standards in Accuracy. 
This County 



Grade 

Standards in Rate 

This County 

Standards in Accuracy. 
This County 



Addition 








4 


5 


6 


7 


6 


8 


10 


11 


6.4 


7.2 


8.1 


9.2 


64 


70 


73 


75 


42.7 


54 


51.1 


64.5 


ubtraction 








4 


5 


6 


7 


7 


9 


11 


12 


6.6 


7.8 


8.3 


9.8 


80 


83 


85 


86 


48.6 


62.5 


51.4 


69.2 


ultiplication 








4 


5 


6 


7 


6 


8 


9 


10 


5.4 


6.4 


7.5 


9.6 


67 


75 


78 


80 


40.7 


59.6 


51.1 


66.4 


Division 








4 


5 


6 


7 


4 


6 


8 


10 


3.9 


4.7 


5.3 


7.8 


57 


77 


87 


90 


37.7 


48.6 


57.5 


72.5 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 53 

In each case, the standards which have been established 
by the authors of the tests are shown. 

An examination of these Tables and Graphs shows that 
the results for this county are far below the established 
standards except in comprehension in silent reading. In 



Monroe's Standardized Silpnt Reading Tests 

Scores /// /8d^e 



Z5B 














224- 














192. 
160 

128. 


















..''' 


."'" 


,-'- 




36 






,'' 












f 




-^ 






G4- 




3?. 















C-KAoes 3 4 5 6 

Mo/A/is 52. a5 79. 6S 19.7.S 82 39 

Wonrote'S Standard IVlediati. ---••• 
\(.a.rv\.ee County Media. la —.——, 

G-RAPH No. 1. 



7 

92.14- 



e 
95. 



54 



University of Texas Bulletin 



Monroe's Standardized Silent Reading Tests 
Scores /)? Co/9fpre/7e^s/^/z 



OA 



IS 



-^ , 



G-fZAOES 3 4 5 
A?fP/A/ws 61^ 12 14.44 
Monroes S-tandia.rdi.zed Media.KL-- 
KAj-nes Countv Med/a-n. 



6 

17 9L 



7 

18. -21 



e 

21 62'5 



Graph No q,. 

each case the difference between the standing of the records 
under consideration and the standards which have been 
adopted as norms throughout the country is so great as 
to indicate that some fundamental cause must be operating. 
The fact that these children are above standards in compre- 
hension can be accounted for by calling attention to the rate 
at which their reading is done. In other words, they get the 
meaning of the passages by sacrificing rate. It seems prob- 
able that these pupils are victims of methods which employ 
oral reading in a large degree, and which emphasize the 
dictum, "read slowly and understandingly." That a rapid 
rate of reading and efficient comprehension can be combined 
in the reading of children has been shown many times. 
Any plan for delevoping the efficiency of these children in 
reading would include careful training for increasing their 
rate. It is now the purpose to consider certain factors 
mentioned in the earlier part of this report in their relation 
to the results just cited. 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 55 

Langvuge. Some of the results in Part I would seem to 
indicate that lack of familiarity with the English language 
might be a cause of the poor showing in the tests. This is 
not true, because only schools where English was thorough- 
ly understood were visited. It should also be remembered 
that the knowledge of English would play only a small part 
in the arithmetic tests, since these tests consisted in per- 
forming f udamental operations. 

Length of School Term and Attendance. The average 
length of the school term is 150 days. It is not known how 
much time is required to teach the elements of silent read- 
ing and the fundamentals of arithmetic to a group of av- 
erage children. It seems, however, that if the teacher real- 
ized the importance of these types of work, and centered 
attention upon them and used fairly good methods of in- 
struction, a period of instruction which covers 150 days of 
each year is sufficient for a mastery of these fundamentals 
in the curriculum. It is recognized that with a school term 
of only 150 days there is without doubt considerable loss in 
the proficiency of children during the vacation period. 
This factor does not enter into the situation at hand be- 
cause these results were compiled during the month of 
April, so that the children had the advantage of seven 
months of training. 

Experience of the Teaching Force. One factor which is 
usually thought of as entering into successful teaching is 
experience. In this county the average teaching experience 
among the men is eight years and among the women four 
years. It seems clear that these periods of service are of 
sufficient length to give practice in the use of any type of 
method or device which the teacher may have had in mind 
at the beginning of her professional career. This period of 
service also seems of sufficient length to allow for the modifi- 
cation of methods and for the acquiring of new ones. From 
these standpoints, it does not seem that the results of the 
tests are due to the lack of teaching experience. 

Certification and Training of Teachers. Mr. Davis' re- 
sults show that only a small part of the teachers of this 



56 University of Texas Bullethi 

county have had any training beyond the high school and 
that a large per cent of them have only second grade cer- 
tificates. The type of training which is most common is 
that received in high school. Such training gives a knowl- 
edge of subject matter but does not give any professional 
training. 

It is probable that one of the greatest causes of the 
failure to teach the two subjects under consideration in an 
efficient manner is to be found in the absence of training in 
those methods and devices which pertain to the teaching of 
the common branches. In the absence of such training 
most teachers teach as they were taught. Under such con- 
ditions it is doubtful if any but a few of the most intelligent 
will develop methods of their own to meet the situations 
which confront them. 

Retardation. The retardation shown in Table III (page 
41) is probably due to a variety of causes. If intelligence 
tests had been given there is no doubt that it would have 
been found that a number of children had intelligence of 
such low degree as to prevent the doing of school work in a 
satisfactory manner. Doubtless many have stayed out of 
school so that it has been impossible for them to make 
progress. If the situation were thoroughly understood, it 
would most likely be found that a considerable number have 
failed in the work of the upper grades because they did not 
master the fundamentals of reading and arithmetic in the 
lower grades. This means that one method of improving 
the situation in these schools would be to increase the ef- 
ficiency of the teaching in the fundamental subjects in the 
lower grades. 

Bi'ight Children. The emphasis thus far has been upon 
the fact that the children of this county do not measure up 
to the standards. It should not be forgotten that not a few 
children were found who completed the reading test with 
perfect answers in less time than was allowed for the test. 
In the arithmetic test a few children were found in the 
fourth and fifth grades who reached the standards for the 
eighth grade. If the question is raised as to why these chil- 



A Study of Rural Schools in Kaimes County 57 

dren succeed so well in a general situation such as has been 
described, the answer is that they are doubtless children of 
such high intelligence that their success does not depend in 
any large degree upon the type of school which they attend. 
Such children need only to be started in any type of school 
work. After this, their high grade of intelligence and their 
initiative carry them forward in a way which makes for a 
high degree of efficiency in their school work. These are 
the children who need but little drill, who are able to follow 
directions accurately, and who profit much by observation 
and contact with their classmates. Because a few children 
succeed in this manner in the one-room country school by 
the methods just described and finally attract public atten- 
tion in some manner, it is often argued that the "little red 
school house" is an efficient institution. A much better 
measure of the efficiency of these schools would be to see 
what they do for all the children rather than to base judg- 
ments upon a few children who have by superior ability 
succeeded in spite of the training which these schools have 
given them. 

The Remedy. The fundamental defect here is probably a 
two-fold one. First, there is not a clear appreciation of 
aims in teaching the two subjects, and second, there is not 
a clear understanding of the rules for the drill work which 
is necessary in the teaching of these subjects. 

Space is not provided for a complete discussion of these 
two points, yet it may be said that unless the teacher has a 
fairly clear idea concerning the place and value of silent 
reading in school work, and appreciates some of the dif- 
ferences between silent and oral reading, successful teach- 
ing of this subject is not possible. It is also true that if the 
subject is to be well taught, there ought to be a clear appre- 
ciation of the value of practice work both in and out of 
school. 

Efficient work in arithmetic demands that a clear dis- 
tinction be made between the drill and reasoning processes 
in this subject. The four fundamentals are for the most 
part to be dealt with as drill processes and efficiency in these 



58 University of Texas Bulletin 

processes is necessary to success in the reasoning phases 
of the subject. It should be emphasized also that mere 
drill will not bring success. The drill must be carried out 
in a way which centers the attention of the child upon his 
own difficulties and which allows sufficient time for these 
deficiences to be overcome. Probably the best device for 
carrying out such work is that devised by Mr. Courtis and 
published by the World Book Co., Chicago. 

The question is raised as to how the teachers are to get 
this information in regard to aims and methods. It is 
clear that a considerable period of time will elapse before 
there is a teaching force who have had such training in 
higher institutions of learning. If there is any feasible 
plan which will bring results more promptly, it should be 
adopted. Such a plan seems to be found in the employment 
of a county supervisor. This supervisor should be a well- 
trained person and should be selected by the county superin- 
tendent after conferring with the state superintendent. It 
should be the duty of this supervisor to visit her teachers 
often, to give demonstration lessons, to furnish detailed 
outlines, and to point out mistakes in teaching. Such a 
person becomes a teacher of teachers in service. This type 
of training is probably much more effective if given while 
the teacher is in actual service than if given while the 
teacher is a student in a college where teacher training is 
given. That such a plan is practical, is shown by the fact 
that it is used with success in Louisiana and other states in 
the Union. 



APPENDIX 

The following forms were used in securing information regarding 
the schools of the County. In addition, data were secured from the 
office of the county superintendent, the office of the county tax As- 
sessor aTid the federal census for 1920. Personal visitation by a 
representative of the Bureau of Extension was made to practically 
all of the schools in the County. 

QUESTIONNAIRE TO TRUSTEES 
Educational Survey of the Rural Schools of 



County 

Please fiill in the information called for by these questions, and re- 
turn to the County Superintendent's office as promptly as possible. 
In doing so you will be rendering a valuable service for the better- 
ment of the rural and village schools of this county. Will you please 
give this matter your prompt attention. 



County Superintedent of Schools. 

Name of school 

Name of trustee Postoffice 

1. How many years have you resided in the district? 

2. How many years have you served as school trustee? 

3. How long have you served as trustee of this school? • 

4. Were you appointed by the county superintendent, or were you 
duly elected at the last regular election for school trustees? 

5. Do you require the teachers to give you an inventory of the 
school property, library books, globes, charts, etc., at the end of each 
school year? 

6. Do you always ask the advice of the county superintendent be- 
fore making school improvements or purchasing school supplies? 

7. Do you ever purchase school supplies from agents without first 
consulting the county superintendent as to prices, quality, etc? 

8. Do you confer with the county superintendent before employ- 
ing a new teacher? 

9. If in need of a new teacher, how do you go about finding one?--- 

10. Does your school offer instruction in the high-school subjects? 

If not, what provision is made for high-school 

advantages for the children of your district? — --- 

11. Has school consolidation been 'considered in your district? 
If so, what was the outcome of it? 

12. Name in the order of their importance, as you see them, three 
of the greatest needs of your school: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 



60 University of Texas Bulletin 

QUESTIONNAIRE TO SCHOOL PRINCIPALS 

Educational Survey of the Rural Schools of County- 
Please fill in the information called for by these questionnaires and 
return to the County Superintendent's office as promptly as possible. 
In doing so you will be rendering a valuable service for the betterment 
of the rural and village schools of this county. Will you please give 
this matter your prompt attention? 



County Superintendent of Schools. 

Name of school Number of district 

Name of principal Postoffice 



COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS 

1. How many teachers in your school? 

2. How many children of free-school age were enumerated for 
your school district by the last scholastic census? 

3. How many have actually been enrolled in school this year? 

4. How many families do the children come from? 

5. A social center is a place where people meet for recreation or 
merely to; pass the time away. The place of meeting may be a club, 
a barbershop, drugstore, postoffice, or some other place. Name the 
congregating places of your community in the order of their popularity 



6. What per cent of the young people of your community go to 
town for their recreation? Why? 

7. What per cent of your students above fifteen years of age 

intend to remain in the country and on the farm to live? 

Why? 

What per cent intend to go to the cities and towns to live? 

Why? 

8. Do you have organized athletics in your school? 

Basketball? Baseball? Tennis? 

Other athletic sports? . 

9. Does your community have any of the following activities for 

social and cultural betterment: Choral club? Male or 

mixed quartette? Orchestra? Literary society? 

Reading circle? Story-tellers' league? 

Victrola concerts? Other activities? ■- 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 61 

10. Check the following conveniences for public meetings at your 
schoolhouse: Auditorium? Classrooms with folding or slid- 
ing doors? Movable seats? Victrola? 

Piano? Stereopticon? Motion picture machine? 

Other conveniences? 

11. How many churches in your community? How many 

church services per month? What per cent of the people 

attend? How many church societies such as Epworth 

League, etc.? How often do they meet? 

How many Sunday-school services per month? 

12. Does your community have any of the following business or- 
ganizations: Farm bureau? Breeders' association? 

Farmers' union? Sweet potato curing plant? 

Other farm or business organizations? 

13. Do you co-operate with Farm and Home Demonstration 

Agents? Does your school have the services of a county 

health nurse? - 

14. Have you an organized Parent-Teacher Association? 

Is it active? If not, why not? 

15. Has your school held a community fair? Has it 

taken any interest in the county fair? . , 

GROUNDS, BUILDINGS, AND EQUIPMENT 

A. Grounds: 

1. Playground: Area in acres? Neatly fenced? 

Fence in good repair? Shade trees? Places for 

eating lunches? Provisions for play: Tennis courts? 

Basketball court? Baseball diamond? 

Swings? Horizontal. bars? Flag pole? — 

Sand pile? Other play equipment? 

Drainage: Good? Fair? :_Poor? 

Walks: Material? When built? 

2. Out Houses: Boys' and girls' toilets at least 50 yards apart? 

Fly-proof and sanitary? How often cleaned? 

Marked and defaced? Shed for driving-stock 

used by pupils coming to school? 

3. Water Supvly : Well? Cistern? Spring? 

Pump in well? Method of distributing water: 

Bubbling fountains? Fountains in good working order? 

Hydrants and individual cups? Individual cups 

and common bucket? Common cups and common bucket? 



62 University of Texas Bulletin 



B Buildings: 

1. Material: Brick? Stone? Stucco? 

Wood? Number of rooms? 

2, Condition: Good? Fair? Poor? 

When last painted? 

Window panes missing? Clean? 

Number of classrooms? Halls? 

Storeroom? Condition? 

Auditorium: Size? Folding doors opening 

classrooms together? How seated? . 

How lighted? Piano? 

3. Heating: Unjacketed stove? Jacketed stove? 

Jacketed stove properly installed and in perfect working condition? 
Stove polished? No disfiguring marks? 

4. Lighting: Windows properly grouped and seats arranged so 

light does not come directly into pupils' eyes? 

Window space equal to one-sixth of floor space? No cross 

lighting? Adjustable) window shades? From top 

5. Ventilation: Jacketed stove with outside air intake? 

Ventilation by windows and doors only? 

6. Cleanliness and General Order: Clean floors? 

Sweeping compound? Floors oiled? Scrubbed 

how often? Swept how often? 

When? By whom? 

Rough and splintery? Clean walls and clean furniture? 

Dustless chalk? Oiled dust cloth? 

Erasers and chalk-rail clean? Lavatory? 

Liquid soap in glass bulb? Wash basin? 

Individual towels? Mirror? Clean sanitary 

shelves for lunch baskets? Equipment for serving hot 

lunches? ' Scales, charts, and other necessary equipment for 

weighing and measuring children? Shoe scrapers or mats 

at door? 

7. Interior Decorations: Pleasing interior? Clean paper 

on walls or wallsi' properly tinted? Pictures? 

Pot plants or window boxes? 

C. Equipment: 

1. General: Single desks of three sizes and all desks in each row 

of the same size? Adjustable? How often adjusted? 

Number of pupils improperly seated? 

Teacher's desk and chair? Desk? Neatly kept? 

_._• Maps?— Globe? Charts? 

Twenty-five linear feet of slate or hyloplate blackboard with chalk 

rail in each room? Proper distance from floor 

to swit pupils? 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 



63 



2. Library: Cabinet for books? Number of books in 

library? Are they read? By pupils? 

By patrons? Adaptation of books for use in school? 

Number of books read last year? Value of books? 

Percentage of useless books? Condition of books: Good? 

Fair? Poor? Collection of bulletins? 

Well filed? Dictionary? 

3. Laboratories: Case for keeping apparatus? 

Value of apparatus for physics? Agriculture? 

Physiology? Chemistry? Physical geography? 

Domestic science? Manual training? What per 

cent purchased from agents? Is apparatus well adapted to 

work in general science? What per cent of apparatus has 

been improvised by teacher and pupils? Thermometer? 

Good clock? Textbooks well cared for? Victrola 

and records? Good condition? 

AGES, GRADES, AND SEXES OF PUPILS 
(For all children in school) 
(Please fill out and return to County Superintendent the same day 
this sheet is received) 

Principal of school Postoffice 

Name of school County 







A Be 


Totals 






4 


5 


6 




* 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16, 


17 


If 


19 


,« 


21 
and 


1 


Boys 
Girls 


































































2 


Boys 
Girls 














































































3 


Boys 
Girls 














































































4 


Boys 
Girls 






























































5 


Boys 
Girls 








































8 


Boys 
Girls 

















































7 


Boys 
Girls 

































































i 


Boys 
Girls 









































9 


Boys 
Girls 













































10 


Boys 

Girls 


































-t' 










































11 


Boys 
Girls 















































12 


Boys 
Girls 









































Total 


Boys 
Girls 




















































































64 University of Texas Bulletin 

Number of boys who entered school for the first time this year: 

Five years old? Six? Seven? Eight? 

Nine? 

Number of girls who entered school for the first time this year: 

Five years old? Six? Seven? Eight? 

Nine? 

Instructions: Starting at the top of the table, after you have found 
out the ages of all the boys in the first grade, put the proper numbers 
in the blocks along the horizontal line marked "Boys." For instance, 
if there are two boys five years old, put the figure 2 in the block 
directly under 5. If there are four boys six years of age in the first 
grade, put the figure 4 directly under 6, and so on. Do the same 
thing for the girls. 

Please put the correct totals, both ai lue bottom and to the right, 
and see that they balance. 

OBSERVATIONS OF SURVEYOR 

1. General orderliness and neatness of room: Floors? 

Pupils' desks? Teacher's desk? Blackboards? 

Cloakrooms? Adjustment of window shades? 

Condition of stove? 

2. Heating and ventilation: Impression as to temperature of 

room? Air fresh and cool, or stuffy and hot? 

How is ventilation effected? 

3. General appearance of teacher: Neat and orderly? 

Careless and slovenly? 

4. Pupils: General bearing? Neat? 

Slovenly and unclean? Per cent giving attention effectively 

to business? Attitude towards teacher and school? 

Attitude towards visitors? 

5. Class Work: Number of classes per day? Was teacher 

skillful in getting work out of pupils? Were the recitations 

bookish and formal or did they exhibit! initiative and independence of 

thought? Evidence of teacher's preparation for the 

lesson? Evidence of use of library books or other 

outside reading material? Questions confined to textbook? 

Did teacher show evidence of wide reading and rich 

experience? Were examples and illustrations taken 

from the daily life and experiences of thei pupils? 

Does teacher live in the community? Spend week-ends in 

community? Leader in community affairs? 

QUESTIONNAIRE CALLING FOR INFORMATION FROM 
TRUSTEES 

Educational Survey of the Rural Schools of County. 

Please fill in the information called for by these questions, and 



A Study of Rwal Schools in Karnes County 65 

return to the County Superintendent's ofRce as promptly as possible. 
In doing so you will be rendering a valuable service for the betterment 
of the rural and village schools of this county. Will you please give 
this matter your prompt attention? 



County Superintendent of Schools. 

Name of school 

Name of trustee Postoffice 

1. How many years have you resided in the district? 

2. How many years have you served as school trustee? 

3. How long have you served as trustee of this school? 

4. Were you appointed by the county superintendent, or were 
you duly elected at the last regular election for school trustees? 

5. Do you require the teachers to give you an inventory of the 
school property, library books, globes, charts, etc., at the end of each 
school year? 

6. Do you always ask the advice of the county superintendent 
before making school improvements or purchasing school supplies? 

7. Do you ever purchase school supplies from agents without 
first consulting the county superintendent as to prices, quality, etc.? 

8. Do you confer with the county superintendent before employ- 
ing a new teacher? 

9. If in need of a new teacher, how do you go about finding one? 

10. Does your school offer instruction in the high-school subects? 

If not, what provision is made for high-school advantages 

for the children of your district? 

11. Has school consolidation been considered in your district? 

If so, what was the outcome of it? 

12. Name in the order of their importance, as you see them, three 
of the greatest needs of your school: 

(1) „ 

(2) 

(3) 

QUESTIONNAIRE CALLING FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION 
FROM TEACHERS 

Educational Survey of thei Rural Schools of County 

Please fill in the information called for by these questionnaires and 
return to the County Superintendent's office as promptly as possible. 



66 University of Texas Bulletin 

In doing so you will be rendering a valuable service for the betterment 
of the rural and village schools of this county. Will you please give 
this matter your prompt attention? 



County Superintendent of Schools. 

Name of school 

Name of teacher Postoffice 



TEACHERS 

Biographical Facts: 

1. Sex Date of birth Place of birth 

2. Were you brought up in city, village, or open country? 

3. Occupation of your father (or guardian) during your school 
days 

4. Are you married or single? 

Economic Status: 

1. Give your present monthly salary for teaching? 

2. For how many months in the year are you employed? 

3. How did you spend the major portion of your last summer 
vacation? 

4. State the approximate amount of money earned outside of your 
teaching salary the past year? 

5. Total amount saved or invested during the year? 

6. Number of persons entirely dependent upon you for support? 

7. Number of persons partially dependent upon you for support? 

Social and Living Conditions: 

1. Do you live with your parents while teaching? 

2. Do you board? Live in teacher's home? 

Or maintain an independent household? 

3. Approximate average living expenses per month (including 
board, room, laundry, transportation, etc.)? 

4. How far is your boarding place from school? 

5. Have you a room to yourself at your boarding place? 

6. Is your room heated in winter? 

7. Are you free to entertain callers or guests in the family living 
room or parlor? 

8. What facilities have you for getting to town to shop, etc.? 

9. To what extent do you stay at your boarding place over the 

week-ends? . 

Education and Professional Preparation: 



A Study of Rural Schools in Karnes County 67 

1. How many years did you attend the elementary schools? 

2. How many years did you attend high school? 

3. How many years did you attend normal school? 

4. How many years did you attend college? 

5. Are you a graduate of a high school? 

6. Are you a graduate of a normal school? 

7. Do you hold a university degree? 

From where? 

8. What grade of teacher's certificate do you hold? 

9. Have you ever taken any special courses in rural-school man- 
agement, rural sociology, or other subjects designed to prepare you 
specially for country school teaching? 

10. Name the teachers' magazines or educational journals you are 
reading this year 

11. Name the professional books you have read the past year? 

12. What, in your judgment, could the. normal school in which you 
studied have done in its training to better prepare you for your 

present work? 

Teaching Experience : 

1. At what age did you begin teaching? 

2. How many years have you taught in all? 

3. How long have you taught in your present position? 

4. Give number of years you have taught in each of the following 

positions: One-teacher rural school? Two-teacher rural 

school? Graded village or city school? 

High school? Village principal? Village or 

city superintendent? Other educational experience 

School Management and Organization : 

1. Do you do your own janitor work? If not, how is it 

provided for? Salary of janitor? 

2. How often is your schoolroom swept? 

Scrubbed? Desks scrubbed? 

3. Is it your practice to be with your pupils on the playground 

at recess and at noon intermission? To what extent do 

you join in the sports and games? 

4. How often do you have meetings with teachers and trustees? 



COURSE OF STUDY 

(Teachers in the elementary grades fill in data for the elementary 
grades only. Teachers of the high-school grades fill in data for the 
high-school subjects only.) 

Have you a daily program of study? 



68 University of Texas Bulletin 

Is it based upon the State Course of Study? 

1. Elementary Grades: How many pupils in the elementary 

grades studying each of the following subjects: Reading 

Writing? Arithmetic? Spelling? 

English grammar? Oral and written English composition? 

Texas History? U. S. History? 

Civics? Physiology and hygiene? Physical geog- 
raphy? Descriptive geography? Nature study? 

General Science? Agriculture? Other subjects: 



2. The High-School Grades: How many students in the high- 
school grades are studying each of the following subjects: Algebra? 

Plane geometry? American history? 

Civics and Government? English history? Other 

history courses? English composition and rhetoric? 

Latin? Foreign languages? Physics? 

Chemistry? Agriculture? Farm accounting? 

Animal husbandry? Domestic science and art? 

Other subjects? 



Total number of hours per week devoted to the teaching of high- 
school subjects by all the teachers in your school? 

Total number hours per week devoted to the teaching of the ele- 
mentary subjects by all the teachers in your school? 



THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 
Bureau of Extension 

1. Rural School Service. Lecturers and rural school specialists 
are available for county school surveys, for lectures on school im- 
provement, and for general assistance in directing and organizing 
community meetings. 

2. The Division of Extension Teaching. Courses equivalent to 
those offered in residence at the University are taught by maU, by 
members of the University faculty. Extension classes are offered in 
those centers in the State where there is a demand for them. Group 
Study Courses are available for study clubs. 

3. The Division of Home Economics. Conferences and clinics 
are held relative to the health and nutrition of children of pre-school 
age, as well as for children of school age. Budget making and 
budgetary spending are taught to groups where such service is de- 
sired. 

4. Division of Government Research. Information relative tO 
the problems of municipal, county, state, and national government 
may be had from this division. 

5. The Division of Package Loan Library. This division collects 
material on all important present-day subjects and loans it, free of 
charge, to schools, women's clubs, libraries, community and civic 
organizations, and individuals. When demand for them arises, 
special libraries are often made up on subjects on which libraries are 
not already prepared. 

6. The Photographic Laboratory. ..This laboratory is prepared 
to make lantern slides, produce negatives, and do technical pho- 
tography." The laboratory is also prepared to make motion picture 
films. 

7. The Division of Trades and Industries. Courses in trade, 
analysis, lesson planning, methods of teaching, practical teaching, 
related subject work, and history of industrial education are given 
in industrial centers, by members of the division working in co- 
operation with the State Board for Vocational Education. 

8. The Division of Visual Instruction. Lantern slide sets are 
distributed for educational and recreational purposes. Motion pic- 
ture films are distributed through the division, and information rel- 
ative to Extension service has been prepared and will be mailed free 
upon application. 

9. The University Interscholastic League. Educational contests 
are promoted among the public schools of Texas in public speaking, 
essay-writing, and spelling. It is the purpose of the League also to 
assist in organizing, standardizing and controlling athletics. A bul- 
letin for use in the spelling contests is issued, also one briefing the 
subject for debate and giving selected arguments, one giving sixty 
prose declamations, and one containing the Constitution and Rules 
including a thorough description of all the contests undertaken. 

"THE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION CAMPUS IS THE 
STATE OF TEXAS." 

Address general inquiries to T. H. SHELBY, Director, 

Bureau of Extension, 

Univeraity of Texas. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

020 407 452 5 




